Foreigners in Poland – Results of an Experimental Study by Statistics Poland

The study estimated the number of people staying in Poland based on PESEL identification numbers and individuals’ activity in administrative registers, as of 31 December 2025. It should be noted that these results are experimental in nature and should not be compared with the official population statistics published by Statistics Poland.

The findings indicate that, at the end of 2025, approximately 38.8 million people were staying in Poland, nearly 40,000 more than a year earlier. This total included around 2.3 million foreign nationals, representing an increase of almost 215,000 people compared with the end of 2024.

Key findings on foreigners:

• Foreign nationals accounted for nearly 6% of all people staying in Poland.
• 73% of all foreign nationals were Ukrainian citizens.
• The highest shares of foreign nationals were recorded in the Dolnośląskie Voivodeship (9.8%) and the Mazowieckie Voivodeship (9.3%), while the lowest shares were observed in the Podkarpackie and Świętokrzyskie Voivodeships (2% each).
• People without Polish citizenship were concentrated mainly in large cities and their suburban areas. Their shares were: Wrocław – 19.5%, Warsaw – 14.5%, Poznań – 12.5%, and Kraków – 11.3%.
• The largest numbers of Ukrainian citizens were recorded in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship (346,100) and the Dolnośląskie Voivodeship (237,300). The Podlaskie Voivodeship was the only region where the number of foreign nationals from other countries exceeded the number of Ukrainian citizens.

The analysis also shows a clear concentration of foreign nationals in municipalities with well-developed industrial and logistics sectors, particularly in Lower Silesia and western Poland. In some municipalities, the share of people without Polish citizenship reached 26–30%, whereas in eastern and north-eastern parts of the country it often did not exceed 1–2%.